Friday, July 30, 2010

Cruising the Palouse

We took a road trip to Pullman, Washington to check out Washington State University with our son Zach and his friend Andrew. Our Honda Odyssey was appropriately provisioned with a bag of M & M's and some other stuff that doesn't really count until all the chocolate is gone.

It's a short five hour drive to Pullman, heading eastbound from Seattle on I-90. Pullman is a town of about 28,000 people, two-thirds of whom are university students. The town is located in an area called the Palouse in southeastern Washington State. Composed of rich farm soil on rolling hills, it’s a beautiful place, with lots of wheat, legumes, and grand vistas.

I took these photos while watching the yellow stripes flying by.





We ate at a great restaurant called Sella's, just across the street from a quite corner of the campus. Their calzones demanded eating the entire thing, which was a little more than I really needed, but who could stop? There was a variety of artwork on the walls from college age students and younger. The following pic shows a crimson and gray Cougar (school colors and mascot) guarding his calzone from the wily schemes of the Cougar's competitors in the Pac-10, the orange and black Oregon State Beaver, the "much disliked" purple and gold Husky of rival University of Washington , and the green and yellow Duck of the University of Oregon.



In case you've forgotten your head and neck anatomy:



The nickname of Washington State University is "Wazzu."

It seemed a little odd that you could look off in just about any direction while on campus and see the wheat-crowned tops of the surrounding countryside.



They do plenty of crop dusting out on the Palouse. This plane was appropriately named "Agent Orange."



If you're looking for a medium-sized school with a small town atmosphere, Wazzu is worth checking out. And you don't have to drive - Horizon Airlines flies into Pullman from Seattle.

4 comments:

Norman Teigen said...

I remember the late John Candy portraying a Washington State alum, Tom Tuttle from Tacoma in an early Tom Hanks movie. This character was always singing the fight song which said something about fighting for Washington State. In one of the last scenes the Washington State fight song is used as background music for a procession of varying groups who were about to blow up a bridge. This movie included Tom Hanks and the woman who soon after became his wife.

Alexander said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qLzQ4uOvio

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/kevinmcneal/3657406854/

We would love to have your son here at WSU and after four years he would love it too,

Scott Diekmann said...

Nothing better than a rousing college fight song to jump start your day! Awesome photo of the Palouse.

Cammie Novara said...

"The town is located in an area called the Palouse in southeastern Washington State. Composed of rich farm soil on rolling hills, it’s a beautiful place, with lots of wheat, legumes, and grand vistas." I can totally relate to that from my own experience.